A. Field of Invention
The present invention relates the art of methods and apparatuses regarding electromechanical devices, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses regarding brushless electric motors and electromotive devices.
B. Description of the Related Art
It is known to have a conventional brushless motor 600 (as shown in FIG. 49) that includes a rotor 610 and a stator 630. Conventionally, the rotor 610 is positioned within the stator 630 and has a core 612 that allows the rotor 610 to rotate relative to the stator 630. The stator 630 has at least one magnetic source. Typically, the stator 630 has a plurality of magnetic sources, for example, three electromagnets 632, 633, and 634. Commonly, permanent magnets 614 are attached to the core 612 of the rotor 610 and the rotor 610 is coupled to a shaft (not shown). Typically, the shaft is mounted on a set of bearings (not shown) that allows for the rotation of the shaft. During the operation of the conventional brushless motor 600, a control assembly 602 controls the passing of current through the electromagnets 632, 633, and 634 to generate an electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field interacts with the permanent magnets attached to the core of the rotor. The interaction between the permanent magnets and the electromagnetic field results in the rotation of the rotor relative to the stator. By alternating or otherwise controlling the polarity of the electromagnetic field generated by the current passing through the windings, the rotation of the rotor can be controlled. The rotor being coupled to the shaft, therefore allows the electric current being passed through the windings to be converted into the mechanical rotation of the shaft as a result of the interaction between the permanent magnets of the rotor and the electric field generated by the windings. Commonly, the shaft then provides a physical transfer of the mechanical energy to some other device or mechanism that may be coupled to the shaft. Conventionally, the rotor and the stator are positioned within a common motor casing 602.
It is known to control the rotation of the rotor by controlling the polarity of the electromagnets positioned within the stator. Referring to FIG. 49, typically, in a stator 630 that has three electromagnets 632, 633, and 634, the control assembly will control the direction of the current through the three electromagnets 632, 633, and 634 such that the first and second electromagnets 632, 633 will have polarities that are opposite with respect to each other, while the third electromagnet 634 will not generate any magnetic field. The permanent magnet 614 is then attracted towards one electromagnet and repulsed from the other thereby causing the rotor 610 to rotate. The control assembly may determine the position of the permanent magnet 614 by sensing a current being induced in the third electromagnet 634 by the motion of the permanent magnet 614. The controller then controls the current passing through the electromagnets 632, 633, and 634 to continue the rotation of the rotor 610.
Although known brushless motors work well for their intended purpose, several disadvantages exist. Often the wires extending from an external power source into the stator require the use of some type of seal, such as a dynamic mechanical seal, to prevent fluids from entering into and damaging the stator and its components and to prevent foreign particles from the stator from exiting into the system in which the brushless motor is immersed. Historically, most implantable electrical devices have been powered by either an implantable onboard battery or by an external hardwire power connection passing through a dermic seal into the body. In either case, the need for battery replacement or the likelihood of contracted infections has prevented such devices from being implanted on a permanent or semi-permanent basis within the human body.
Heart disease and other circulatory related ailments are disorders that plague hundreds of millions of people worldwide and claim the lives of millions more on an annual basis. Despite the extensive amount of literature pertaining to the field of artificial heart technology, many prior art devices take a primitive, yet conventional, approach with regard to the pumping of blood in biological circulatory systems. The prior art devices utilize a single centralized pumping means to circulate blood throughout a body in a manner similar to the operational utility of a natural human heart. Hence, while the existing paradigm to approaching these biomedical enigmas has been to ask the question “how to develop an artificial alternative to the human heart?” the more fundamental question to be asked is “how to develop a better circulatory system for the human body?”
Although the heart may have developed in mammals and animals throughout nature as a single centralized circulatory pumping means, with regard to fundamental engineering principles concerning flow and transport phenomena the implementation of a single pumping means for conveying fluid media over a vast and complex flow network would be considered an inadequate engineering design by modern-day standards and practices. This is due to the fact that while in theory a single centralized pumping means would be sufficient to operate the flow network, in reality the presence of any subsequent flow restriction or blockage in the network would adversely affect the downstream flow thereby jeopardizing the vital operation of the entire flow network and causing an undue burden on the centralized pumping means. The application of staged pumping is a concept familiar to fluid, chemical, petrochemical, mechanical and industrial engineers that employs the use of multiple pumping means networked in series and/or in parallel in order to convey fluid media in large volumes over expansive fluid networks that may experience significant restrictions to flow and/or may be susceptible to clogging or blockage throughout the flow network.